Paver Sand Calculator: One Inch of Bedding, Bags for the Joints

Very few patios in this state come out as clean rectangles. A boulder stays where the glacier left it, ledge surfaces at one corner, the edge curves round an old lilac, and the tape never quite agrees with the drawing. Start by getting the shape into numbers, then the sand is straightforward.

Squaring up a patio that is not square

Curved edges. Find the rectangle that the curve mostly fits inside and take that. Bedding sand is an inch deep, so a few square feet either way is a matter of pounds, not tons. Do not lose an afternoon to it.

A corner cut out for ledge. Run it as two rectangles and let the multiple-areas option total them. It takes up to five pieces.

A patio with a landing and a path running off it. Same thing. Three areas, one answer, one delivery.

A round fire-pit terrace. Circle mode, diameter straight across at its widest.

One thing to get right rather than approximately: the bedding layer covers the paved area plus the 6 inch shelf the base runs past each open edge. Screed over that shelf and the edge restraint beds properly.

The depth field gets a 1 and nothing else

Everything else on this site has a depth range. This does not.

Bedding sand is screeded at exactly one inch, compacted only after the pavers are laid so the units seat down into it. Two inches feels generous and behaves badly: the deeper the sand, the more it can shift, and a patio that rocks in its second autumn usually has a thick bed under it. Depth belongs in the stone base, not here.

So enter the shape, the dimensions in feet, and 1 in the depth field. The box will take anything from 0.25 to 24 inches, which is what makes it easy to put the wrong number there.

Choose the material, since that is what sets the weight. The box is labeled for compaction and spillage, and only the second half applies here: bedding is screeded to a thickness rather than compacted down to one, but screeding throws sand off the edges of every pass. Tick it for that, not for a padded bed. Results come back as cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, with Email my quote if you want it in writing.

This tool, the sand calculator, and the bags at the store

Three things share the word sand and none of them is interchangeable.

Bedding sand, sized here. Coarse and angular, so the grains grip. Mason sand or washed sand, one inch, bought by weight.

Everything else sand, sized on the general sand tool. Backfill, leveling under a slab, a sandbox, a volleyball court. Any depth you like, which is precisely why it is a different page.

Joint sand, not sized here at all. The material swept between the pavers is bought by the bag, and a 50 lb bag covers roughly 40 to 75 square feet of standard 1/8 to 1/4 inch joints. Wide joints, or thicker pavers, roughly halve that. Work from the label chart and buy one bag more than the arithmetic says.

Play sand is on none of those lists. Rounded grains roll under load, which is how pavers start moving.

2,700 pounds to the yard, and what that means for the drop

Coarse sand weighs about 2,700 lb per cubic yard, which is 1.35 tons. At the one inch bedding depth, a single yard screeds roughly 320 square feet, so most patios need less than a yard and a half.

Formula: cubic yards = area sq ft, divided by 12, divided by 27. Tons = yards x 1.35.

Sand screeds best damp to dry, never soaked. Tarp the pile when it lands. An uncovered heap through a week of spring rain is a week of waiting.

A 12 by 16 patio off the kitchen door

Hypothetical. Three open sides, so the bedding footprint is 13 by 16.5.

• 13 x 16.5 = 214.5 sq ft
• 214.5 x 1 inch, divided by 12 = 17.88 cu ft
• 17.88 / 27 = 0.66 cu yd
• 0.66 x 1.35 = 0.89 tons

Joints for the 192 square feet of actual paving, at standard width, work out at 192 divided by 40 to 75, so 3 to 5 bags.

A 3 foot walk out to the camp steps

Hypothetical. Forty feet long, both sides open.

• Bedding footprint 4 x 40 = 160 sq ft
• 160, divided by 12 = 13.33 cu ft
• 13.33 / 27 = 0.49 cu yd
• 0.49 x 1.35 = 0.67 tons

Two to three bags for the joints, on 120 square feet of paving.

A walk like this heaves more than a patio does, because it is narrow and its edges are exposed on both sides. Plain sand in the joints will need topping up every season or two; the bagged polymeric sort holds longer but has to go in bone dry. Either way the bedding underneath stays plain coarse sand.

Once the tonnage is settled, order it alongside the base stone so both land together. Sizing the layer below is done on the paver base calculator. Some installers prefer stone dust bedding to sand, which is the New England habit; it screeds firmer and leaves less room to adjust a unit that sits low, and whichever you pick, stay with it across the whole surface.

Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, and delivery and access covers what the truck needs at the drop. The other calculators handle the base, the loam and everything else on the job.

Common questions

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